Wednesday, September 19, 2012

APTA Response to Article on Medicare Charges Published

The Concord Monitor published an APTA letter to the editor in response to an article about the author's experiences with charges for Medicare services, including physical therapist services. The letter also acknowledged New England region chapter presidents who were cosigners.

Comments

In the letter I believe it would be beneficial to address an apparent misunderstanding of what the bill is for. The editor makes it sound like Ther Ex is billed for a single exercise, rather than a unit of time. Same for Manual Tech.
Also an Initial Eval is an untimed charge, which it would help to clarify.
Boyd

Posted by Boyd Etter
on 9/22/2012 8:04 PM

For the knowledge that the APTA has about our profession, and the well spoken people I assume they have on staff, I am surprised this response was not more informative to the public. I think this is why people don't want to pay APTA dues. I think this response was not strong enough in our defense.

Posted by Dr. Kristin Terkelsen
on 9/23/2012 9:14 PM

While I understand the issue of the inadequate reimbursement (often not enough to cover expenses) for our professional services...the 2 most important points were overlooked!!! FIRST, the POPTS is charging outrageously more for the PT services...I have personally witnessed a friend going to a private practice whose reimbursement for (1)manual therapy, (1)ther ex, and (1)modality was $60 from UHC...then went to the POPTS whose reimbursement for the exact same 3 codes was $143. While this is not Medicare, it is a huge drain on our healthcare system. It also stands to put private practice out of business...I have no problem competing on a level playing field, because we provide excellent care...but these unadressed arrangements place private practices at a disadvantage. Without private practice, PT's will soon have little say about what happens with our own profession.
SECOND, while I have great respect for the PTA...most of our patients have been to multiple facilities without improvement...they were seen mostly by aides but also sometimes by a PTA without the proper direction of a PT...the ability of a POPTS or corporation to misuse the PTA's license to run large numbers of patients through provides a money stream for the owner, but does little for the patients or our profession.
Before anyone gets offended, I am not stating this is always the case, but I have been around a long time in many different practice settings and I have seen how often it is the case...we need to get serious about addressing these issues!